By WU Yangyu
Li Auto is planning a little side trip into the self-driving truck business, sources familiar with the matter told Jiemian News on September 8. Vice president LANG Xianpeng, who is already in charge of smart driving, will lead the new push.
Li Auto has already started to poach talent from competitors and advertised for a director to be responsible for design, development, testing and certification.
The job requires at least 10 years' experience, with over 6 years in relevant R&D management. Candidates should have a background in port and terminal logistics.
Li Auto admits to hiring self-driving truck staff but denies any intention of making trucks.
Over the past year, there have been discussions at Li Auto about the value of Level 4 autonomous driving technology. While entirely self-driving cars are a long way off raising a storm of apathy and indifference among drivers, robot trucks are already a very big deal.
There is a belief within Li Auto that the company has enough data to have significant value in Level 3/4 systems and the company will have something to show off next year, but it is hard to see what exactly Li Auto is up to.
Rivals Xpeng and Nio, are not developing their own robot truck but have both invested in companies doing so. Nio invested in Eacon and Inceptio, and Xpeng, through the private equity firm Rockets Capital, invested in Autra Tech. But Li Auto has more potential to actually make a truck.
Li's deliveries in the first half of the year have already exceeded all of last year's. Li Auto’s current valuation of US$42 billion greatly exceeds Nio's (US$19) billion, and XPeng's (US$16 billion).
Li Auto’s profit for H1 has wiped out the losses of the previous three years and full-year revenue for 2023 will exceed 100 billion yuan. Cash flow has increased to 9.6 billion yuan.
